Winsted Hospital's Er To Be Linked To Torrington Facility

September 06, 1996

Under plans announced Wednesday, the emergency room at Winsted Memorial Hospital will be under the license of Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, not Hartford Hospital.

In their original proposal of affiliation with financially failing Winsted Memorial and Charlotte Hungerford, Hartford Hospital officials did not say that the Torrington hospital would have direct control over the Winsted emergency room.

The planned relationship was announced at a meeting of Winsted Memorial's corporators Wednesday night. Officials cited the proximity between the two northwestern hospitals as the reason for the link.

But community lawyer Charlene LaVoie, an opponent of the affiliation, said Thursday that the announcement is a 180-degree turn from Hartford Hospital's previous position of dealing with Charlotte Hungerford and Winsted on separate tracks.

With Winsted's emergency room tied to Charlotte Hungerford's financial future and without the resources of Hartford Hospital, access to local emergency care will end, LaVoie wrote in a prepared statement.

Hartford Hospital has pledged to support anticipated operating losses of $850,000 a year from the Winsted emergency room for only three years.

``After that, who knows what will happen,'' LaVoie wrote.

James Sok, president and chief executive officer of Winsted Memorial and Sharon Hospital, told the corporators Wednesday that the next step in the affiliation is to complete the legal agreement between the hospitals. Winsted Memorial's board of directors could vote on that as early as Sept. 24, and the endorsement of the corporators would be requested shortly after. Then, Winsted Memorial would apply to the state to close its inpatient beds.

The board of selectmen and private groups fighting to retain inpatient care have vowed to fight the application.